One of the big steps in your evolution as a human being is to start reading “one of those things called books”. This may sound peculiar to most of you, but it is not. Try and remember the first time you read a book just because you were interested and nobody assigned it to you as a homework.
What I am calling a human evolution is exactly the moment that something pops into your head and for no apparent reason you are burning of curiosity to read that one book which has become a weird obsession now for days.
This story is about Peter. Peter is a skinny kid, who once didn’t want to read and one day he didn’t want to say goodbye. He is tall, around thirteen years old and loves to avoid responsibilities.
When Peter was young he had always pieces from different books in his literature subject in school. In all the different grades always some new authors came up, but he never felt the interest in reading more about them, except what was written in that one page part of his literature book at school.
His parents kept pushing him to read. The first time they assigned him a book, he was in the second grade and it was summer holidays when they suggested him the Catcher in Rye, by Salinger. They were keeping track of his progress all the time. Instead, what he did, was read one paragraph and skip the next three. As you can already see, Peter was a smart kid, a bit lazy, but he knew how to give a solution to his problems.
He was in the fifth grade, just thirteen or fourteen yours of age and in his literature book he had a piece from Harry Potter series. However, he didn’t know anything about these books at the time, and he had not read the books, nor watched the movies. For some reason, his teacher chooses a lesson plan where watching a part of the Harry Potter movies was involved.
You could see it in his sparkling eyes that something changed in him during that 45 minutes of lesson that day. Something different popped up in his head, his desires changed. He barely could wait to finish the other classes and go home. Apparently he had a plan to put in motion, and nothing could have stopped him.
When the clock hit two of the afternoon, he grabbed his books, smashed them inside his back, grabbed the handle of the bag and went the through the class door like a lightning bolt.
He lived very close to the school, it was an old building, and from the 90s era and it was built even before the school. It was not much more than three to five minutes from his school to his house. When he arrive there, the door was already opened and he could smell the food that his mother was cooking from outside. He left his shoes at the door, went inside to leave his bag in his room and it was obvious that something was rumbling in his head.
He couldn’t take out of his head the Harry Potter movie, and he was dieing of curiosity to know more. Right after the finishes lunch, his mother was working privately at home. She was a teacher, and because their finances were not sufficient she had to work extra privately. While his father was watching TV, Peter couldn’t wait anymore and he let out a loud noise, his mother turned her head and stared at him for a second.
“Peter, are you feeling well?”
“I am mom, I just need to ask you something. – his face was becoming red while he was waiting for the smallest expression of enthusiasm in her face”
“Well, tell me what it is?”
“He let out another breath, while looking at his mother and said – I need to borrow you fifty cents. I need to buy a book.”
“She kept looking at him, suspiciously – How can you buy a book with 50 cents Peter? – she asked.”
“Well, I have 9 dollars saved, so I just need a penny now to have the full amount.”
“Are you sure, that a book is what you will buy? – She asked, looking straight to his eyes in a suspicious way. She couldn’t believe that he was interested in a book, after all what she had been through to make him read, it was hard to believe it now.”
“His breathing became faster as he answered the questions of his mother and didn’t take his eyes away – Yes mom, I want to buy a book. I read a part of it in school today and can’t wait to read more.”
“She stared for a little bit longer, then stood up went to her bag and gave him a dollar – here – she said.”
It was still sunny outside, and Peter ran as fast as he could to the only book store he knew that was close to his place. A place called Friends Book House. It was a book store and a coffee shop, a place where usually young people at the time used for studying and having a coffee or tea.
Inside it was somehow dark, the stairs for the second floor were on the left of the entrance and on the right it was a small bar, with the coffee machine and other kind of drinks which Peter had no idea about. In front of him, it was some kind of reception, where a young man was standing and staring at him.
“How may I help you? – he asked, still looking at Peter”
“Hmm, I am looking for Harry Potter – answered Peter”
“Which one? – asked the boy again”
“I don’t know, just one – said Peter and he started to feel uncomfortable, because he had not information on it.”
The young man, just turned on his back, took several books from the shelves and put them on the desk.
“Choose one of them, or all, as you wish – he answered and left the desk for Peter to choose.”
Peter was confused, so he just picked one of the books, turned it around from the back to the front and vice versa, like analyzing a good kitchen knife. Then, he saw the price on the end of the back page, and apparently he couldn’t afford all of them, so he randomly chose the one which was more appealing from the artwork on the cover.
“This one – he said, while turning around to find where the young man was.”
In just a second, he came back running, pressed some buttons in a small machine, which Peter was not sure what the purpose of that was. The machine started beeping and printing a small piece of paper which, was apparently a bill for the book.
“Exactly 9 dollars and 50 cents – said the young man while looking at Peter in demand.”
The only thing that Peter wanted to do now, was run back home and discover some secrets of magic, so he didn’t gave much attention, just put his feast on the pocket, took the money out, and left it on the desk. A “thank you” was heard while he was running out of the store and back in the pavement.
That book was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book of the series. He read it in one day and half. For all the time that he was reading the book, he didn’t go out of his room, or bed unless he had to eat lunch – after an endless calls from his mother on the other side of the house – or going to the bathroom, which he tried to postpone it as much as he could until the point that his stomach was bursting.
When he finished the book, this feeling of sadness surrounded him, like someone close had died and he wouldn’t see him or her again. This kind of melancholy which he was to young to understand and the feeling was too strong, he felt alone and nothing could fulfill him, or make the feeling go away.
Not long after, he bought the other books, and started reading them in fury. Every time he finished all 3 of them, he went on and started it back from the first one, because every time he finished, the feeling kept coming back.
Each year the new book came out and he was one of the first to buy and read it. He was obsessed and nothing could take him away from that story. Because the story was just exactly like he imagined it. Made him feel part of it. If he would have written about wizards that’s how he would have done it.
It came to a point though, when Peter was in his first year of high school that he had other school books to read and not as much time anymore. His cousin had given him, this huge book of philosophy, a two thousand pages book. Reading that book, not only helped him move on from his first love, but also built a discipline of reading and a desire to know more.
It was hard to say goodbye, and he didn’t want to say it, but at some point he should have. Now, in this time, he is an adult and yet every time, that he needs a motivation or something to make him feel better he opens one of the books from Harry Potter series. When people ask him, for suggestions on books, he always says that you should find a book, which has such a great story that you don’t feel thirsty or hungry anymore, because otherwise you interrupt your imagination. After that book, you will learn to read everything. Reading books, is like going to gym or work, if you rush to the finish, you won’t be able to enjoy the path. What you need during the path, is discipline and desire, if you build those, there is nothing to stop you from glory.
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